Insurer 'Bailouts' Are the Wrong Target

It's not 'crony capitalism' when government buys services from businesses.

By

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

Jan. 31, 2014 5:54 p.m. ET

For one of Bill Clinton's state of the union speeches, Republicans came festooned in lapel buttons proclaiming, "It's the spending, stupid!" Unfortunately only the word "stupid," in larger typeface, was visible to TV viewers.

Republicans do not improve their reputation with their recent brainstorm to focus their opposition on ObamaCare subsidies to insurance to cover the uninsured. Of the 50 million Americans who lack insurance partly because of government actions that have rendered insurance an...